25 Danish real estate properties, primarily for production and storage purposes, have gained a new investor in international asset manager Blackstone, for a price of just under DKK 1 billion (EUR 134.4 million).

The current owners are M7 Real Estate and Oaktree Capital Management, which are selling off in favor of a new joint venture between M7 Real Estate and Blackstone.

"M7 continues as investment and asset manager for the new joint venture. We can't comment any further on the situation," says Mette Seifert, managing director of M7 Real Estate in Denmark, to EjendomsWatch, a sister site to FWAM.

The 25 Danish properties, which also include logistical properties, are scattered from Aalborg in northern Denmark, over cities Aarhus, Vejle, Kolding, and Haderslev, to Copenhagen suburbs such as Vallensbæk, Albertslund, and Ballerup.

Supplements deal of DKK 9.5 billion

The transaction comes in addition to a bigger European deal of DKK 9.5 billion (EUR 1.3 billion), which Blackstone and M7 recently carried out, comprising 171 properties in Germany and the Netherlands. They were, until now, owned by Dutch property investor Hansteen, which specializes in getting new value from properties in need of modernization or repurposing.

"The sale is a convincing opportunity to crystallize the values that we have obtained under active management in our German and Dutch stocks," says Hansteen's management in a press release, which also states that the value now being realized by a sale is 30 percent higher than the properties' booked value at the end of 2015.

It has not been possible to get information on whether the same yardstick counts for sold-off Danish properties.

Buys Danske Bank properties

Last year, M7 together with H.I.G. Capital acquired Danske Bank's portfolio with 76 primarily bank office properties outside the Greater Copenhagen area for DKK 850 million (EUR 114.2 million). M7 is partner owned and manages around 600 properties in Europe worth total value of more than DKK 18 billion, and in addition to H.I.G. Capital, Blackstone, and Oaktree, M7 invests jointly with international players such as Goldman Sachs, M&G Investments, and Starwood Capital.

Blackstone, which invests on behalf of e.g. American pension funds, states that the company manages an asset base of USD 102 billion (EUR 112.5 billion). Blackstone's property portfolio includes offices, industry properties, residential properties, and hotels, the global Hilton hotel chain among them.

CBRE has been consultant to Blackstone and M7 in connection with the Hansteen portfolio, while American Eastdil Secured has provided counseling in connection with the Danish properties and establishment of the joint venture between the two asset managers.

Blackstone established a company in Denmark last year, in which Jeppe Brøndum is registered as chief executive.

English Edit: Marie Honoré